Senior Product Designer, Design System Team

Wolt - English
Full-timeBerlin, Berlin, Germany
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📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Product Designer, Design System Team

Company: Wolt - English

Location: Berlin, Germany or Stockholm, Sweden

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / Design Systems

Date Posted: June 16, 2025

Experience Level: Senior (7+ years)

Remote Status: On-site/Hybrid (Tech Hub in Berlin, Helsinki, or Stockholm)

🎨 Role Summary

  • Lead the evolution and maintenance of Wolt's core design system, impacting customer experience across multiple platforms (app and desktop).
  • Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams (Product, Engineering, Research, Content Design) to ensure the design system meets user needs and business objectives.
  • Define and manage design tokens, components, and assets, ensuring consistency, scalability, and adherence to brand guidelines.
  • Champion the design system within the organization, providing guidance and support to other designers and fostering a culture of design excellence.
📝 Enhancement Note: The role focuses specifically on the Design System team within the 'Central Team,' indicating a strategic focus on a unified and consistent user experience across Wolt's offerings. This suggests a need for strong system thinking and collaboration skills beyond individual product feature design.

🖼️ Primary Responsibilities

  • Actively listen to and understand user problems, translating insights into beautifully crafted design system elements and guidelines.
  • Partner with product managers and engineers to identify and implement elegant yet practical solutions for design system challenges.
  • Provide thought leadership and inspire teams to adopt and contribute to the design system, ensuring alignment with overall design direction.
  • Work closely with engineers to ensure the efficient and effective implementation of design system components across platforms.
  • Collaborate with product designers across the organization to identify needs, create new elements, and ensure adherence to the design system principles.
  • Monitor the usage and effectiveness of the design system, gathering feedback and identifying areas for continuous improvement.
📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "Listen carefully" highlights the importance of a user-centered approach even within a design system role. This suggests a requirement for strong empathy and the ability to translate user needs into foundational design elements.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While a specific degree isn't mentioned, a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience, is typically expected for a Senior Product Designer role focusing on design systems.

Experience: 7+ years of professional experience in product design, with a strong portfolio demonstrating expertise in designing for consumer-focused technology companies on both app and desktop platforms.

Required Skills:

  • Proven experience managing and contributing to comprehensive design systems, including design tokens, components, and assets.
  • Mastery of end-to-end product design, encompassing interaction design and visual design to create delightful user experiences.
  • Demonstrated ability to ensure high-quality, consistent, and scalable user interfaces across various platforms.
  • Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate design decisions and inspire confidence in design direction.
  • A people-focused design mentality, with a commitment to incorporating user feedback into the design process and system evolution.
  • Proficiency in relevant design tools (see Tools & Technology Stack section).

Preferred Skills:

  • Experience working within a fast-paced, agile development environment.
  • Familiarity with accessibility standards and inclusive design practices.
  • Experience with motion design principles and their application within a design system.
📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for 7+ years of experience specifically in a consumer-focused tech company, coupled with the "Mastery" of product, interaction, and visual design, points to a need for a highly seasoned and versatile design professional with a deep understanding of user behavior in a dynamic consumer environment.

🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

  • Your portfolio should showcase your experience in building and maintaining design systems, highlighting your contributions to components, patterns, documentation, and governance.
  • Include case studies that demonstrate your end-to-end design process, from problem definition and research through ideation, prototyping, testing, and implementation, specifically within the context of how your work contributed to a larger design system.
  • Present examples of your visual design and interaction design skills, emphasizing consistency, scalability, and attention to detail in your UI contributions.
  • Showcase your ability to document design system guidelines and principles clearly and comprehensively.

Process Documentation:

  • For design system contributions, document the rationale behind component decisions, variations, and usage guidelines.
  • Explain your approach to collaborating with engineers and other designers when evolving the design system.
  • Detail how you gather feedback and iterate on design system elements based on user needs and implementation challenges.
📝 Enhancement Note: Given the focus on design systems, the portfolio review will heavily emphasize contributions to shared libraries, documentation, and the ability to think systematically about design. Candidates should tailor their portfolios to highlight these aspects.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on market data for Senior Product Designer roles with Design System specialization in Berlin, Germany and Stockholm, Sweden, the estimated salary range is €70,000 - €100,000 annually, depending on experience, location, and specific skills. This estimate is based on research from publicly available salary data for similar roles in these tech hubs and adjusted for a senior-level position with specialized design system experience. The final compensation will be a negotiable combination of monthly pay and equity.

Benefits:

  • Competitive monthly salary.
  • Significant equity ownership in Wolt (a piece of the pie), aligning personal success with company growth.
  • Opportunity to work in a dynamic, fast-growing international company.
  • Potential for relocation assistance if moving to Berlin, Helsinki, or Stockholm.

Working Hours: Full-time position, typically 40 hours per week. Wolt likely offers flexibility to support a healthy work-life balance, especially in a hybrid work model, while ensuring design team collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is estimated based on typical compensation for senior design roles with specialized skills in design systems within the tech hubs of Berlin and Stockholm. Data sources include Glassdoor, Payscale, and other publicly available salary aggregators for these regions, adjusted for the described experience level and specialization. The emphasis on equity is a significant part of the compensation package and should be considered by applicants.

🎯Team & Company Context

🏢 Company & Design Culture

Industry: Software Development / Local Commerce / Delivery Services. Wolt operates in a fast-paced, consumer-facing environment, requiring a design system that is adaptable, scalable, and visually appealing across diverse use cases.

Company Size: 10,001+ employees globally, following the integration with DoorDash. This large size indicates a mature organization with established processes, yet the mention of "dreaming big and expanding across the globe" suggests ongoing growth and evolution, impacting the design system's scope and complexity.

Founded: 2014. Wolt has a relatively short but impactful history in the delivery space, known for its focus on technology and user experience. The joining of forces with DoorDash in 2022 signifies a major expansion and integration effort, likely impacting the design system's need for cross-platform consistency.

Team Structure:

  • The role is within the dedicated Design System Team, part of the broader "Central Team" focused on a unified customer experience.
  • Collaboration is key, working closely with Product Managers, Engineers, User Researchers, Motion Designers, and Content Designers.
  • The team likely follows an agile methodology, requiring adaptability and iterative development of the design system.

Methodology:

  • A user-centered design approach is emphasized ("Listen carefully," "people-focused design mentality").
  • Collaboration across teams is a core principle ("Collaborate across teams").
  • Focus on iterative design and continuous improvement of the design system based on usage and feedback ("Monitor the usage of the system and provide feedback on how to improve it").

Company Website: https://careers.wolt.com/en

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's integration with DoorDash suggests a complex environment for a design system role, likely involving aligning or consolidating existing systems and ensuring consistency across a larger, combined platform. The fast-paced nature of the delivery industry also means the design system needs to be flexible and support rapid iteration.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Design Career Level: This is a Senior-level role, requiring significant experience and the ability to work autonomously, provide thought leadership, and mentor others. The focus on a core design system positions this role as critical to the overall design organization's efficiency and quality.

Reporting Structure: The role is within the Design System Team, which is part of the Central Team. The reporting structure likely involves reporting to a Design Manager or Lead within the Design System or Central team, providing direct influence on the foundational design elements used across the company.

Design Impact: This role has a high level of impact, as the design system directly influences the consistency, quality, and efficiency of design work across all product teams at Wolt and potentially DoorDash. Contributions will directly shape the user experience for millions of customers.

Growth Opportunities:

  • Opportunities to deepen expertise in design system architecture, governance, and scaling in a large organization.
  • Potential for leadership within the Design System team, mentoring junior designers and contributing to strategy.
  • Exposure to a wide range of product areas and cross-functional teams within a global tech company.
📝 Enhancement Note: A Senior Product Designer on a Design System team in a large, growing company like Wolt has significant potential for impact and growth. This role is often a stepping stone towards Design Lead or Manager roles focused on design operations and system thinking.

🌐 Work Environment

Studio Type: Wolt has tech hubs in Berlin, Helsinki, and Stockholm. The work environment is likely a modern office setup designed to facilitate collaboration among design, product, and engineering teams. Given the hybrid model, the office likely includes dedicated collaboration spaces and resources for both in-person and remote interactions.

Office Location(s): Berlin, Germany; Helsinki, Finland; Stockholm, Sweden. These are major tech hubs with good accessibility via public transport. The specific addresses of the tech hubs would be provided during the interview process.

Design Workspace Context:

  • The workspace is likely designed to foster creativity and collaboration, with areas for focused work, team meetings, and collaborative design sessions.
  • Access to necessary design tools, software, and hardware will be provided.
  • Opportunity for regular interaction with the Design System team and other product teams in person, fostering a strong team dynamic and facilitating efficient system development.

Work Schedule: Full-time, with the flexibility of a hybrid work model. This allows for a balance of in-office collaboration in the tech hubs and remote work, accommodating different work styles while maintaining team cohesion and project progress.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid work model across multiple tech hubs suggests a strong emphasis on effective remote collaboration tools and practices within the design team and across the organization. Candidates should be comfortable working in a distributed team environment.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Design Interview Process:

  • Initial screening call with a recruiter to discuss experience and role fit.
  • Interview(s) with members of the Design System team to assess technical skills, design system experience, and collaboration style. Be prepared to discuss your approach to design system governance, component design, and documentation.
  • Portfolio review session where you present selected case studies, focusing on projects where you contributed to or utilized a design system. Highlight your process, decision-making, and the impact of your work on consistency and efficiency.
  • Design challenge or take-home assignment related to design system problem-solving or component design.
  • Interviews with cross-functional partners (Product, Engineering) to assess collaboration skills and understanding of the design system's role in product development.
  • Final interview(s) with design leadership to discuss strategic thinking, leadership potential, and cultural fit within Wolt's design organization.

Portfolio Review Tips:

  • Clearly articulate your role and specific contributions to any design system projects presented.
  • Focus on the "why" behind your design system decisions, explaining the problem you solved and the impact of your solution.
  • Showcase your documentation style and how you communicate design system guidelines to other designers and developers.
  • If showcasing product design work, explain how you leveraged existing design systems or contributed to their evolution within the project.

Challenge Preparation:

  • Review best practices for design system architecture and component design.
  • Practice articulating your design process and rationale clearly and concisely.
  • Be prepared to discuss how you handle feedback and iterate on design system elements.

ATS Keywords: Design Systems, Product Design, UI Design, UX Design, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Design Tokens, Components, Design Assets, Design Documentation, Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Prototyping, User Research, Usability Testing, Collaboration, Agile, Scrum, Cross-functional Teams, Scalable Design, Consistent UI, Design Governance, Style Guides, Component Libraries, Pattern Libraries, Accessibility, Inclusive Design, Storytelling, Communication, Problem Solving, Consumer Tech, Mobile Design, Desktop Design, Design Operations (DesignOps).

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process for a Design System role will heavily scrutinize your understanding of system thinking, collaboration with engineering, and the ability to communicate complex design principles effectively. Be prepared to discuss specific examples of how you've contributed to or managed a design system.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Design Tools:

  • Figma: Highly likely as the primary tool for UI design, prototyping, and design system management, given its collaborative features and popularity in tech companies. Proficiency in creating and managing components, variants, and libraries within Figma is essential.
  • Sketch or Adobe XD: While Figma is dominant, familiarity with other industry-standard design tools can be beneficial, especially during transitions or when collaborating with teams using different software.

Collaboration & Handoff:

  • Zeplin or Abstract: Potential tools for design handoff to engineers and version control for design files, ensuring a smooth transition from design to development.
  • Jira or Asana: Project management tools used for tracking design system tasks, issues, and requests from other teams.
  • Slack or Microsoft Teams: Essential for daily communication and collaboration with the Design System team and cross-functional partners.

Research & Testing:

  • User Research Platforms (e.g., Maze, UserTesting.com): Tools for gathering user feedback on design system elements and validating their effectiveness in real-world scenarios.
  • Analytics Platforms (e.g., Amplitude, Google Analytics): Tools for measuring the impact of design system changes on user behavior and key product metrics.
📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in Figma is almost certainly a requirement for this role, given its widespread adoption for design systems. Experience with tools that facilitate collaboration and handoff with engineering will also be highly valued.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Design Values:

  • User-Centered: A deep commitment to understanding and solving real user problems is a core value, influencing the design system's focus on usability and effectiveness.
  • Collaboration: Strong emphasis on working closely with product, engineering, research, and content teams to ensure the design system meets diverse needs and fosters a unified approach.
  • Excellence: Striving for high-quality, consistent, and scalable design solutions, reflected in the meticulous management and evolution of the design system.
  • Impact: A focus on delivering tangible results and ensuring that the design system contributes positively to the overall user experience and business goals.

Collaboration Style:

  • Highly collaborative and cross-functional, with regular interaction and feedback loops with various teams.
  • Emphasis on open communication, knowledge sharing, and constructive critique within the design team and across disciplines.
  • Likely utilizes agile methodologies, requiring flexibility and adaptability in response to changing needs and priorities.
📝 Enhancement Note: The description highlights a collaborative and user-centric design culture. Candidates should be prepared to discuss how they have successfully collaborated with cross-functional teams and incorporated user feedback into their design system work.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Design Challenges:

  • Maintaining a consistent and scalable design system across a large, complex, and rapidly evolving product ecosystem, including integration with DoorDash's platforms.
  • Balancing the needs of diverse product teams while ensuring the design system remains cohesive and manageable.
  • Educating and empowering designers and engineers across the organization to effectively utilize and contribute to the design system.
  • Staying ahead of design trends and technology advancements to ensure the design system remains modern and future-proof.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

  • Opportunity to become a subject matter expert in design system architecture and governance within a leading tech company.
  • Exposure to complex scaling challenges and the opportunity to develop strategies for managing design debt in a large organization.
  • Access to internal and external training resources to enhance skills in design systems, leadership, and relevant technologies.
📝 Enhancement Note: The scale and complexity of Wolt's product and the integration with DoorDash present significant, yet rewarding, challenges for a Senior Design System Designer. Candidates who can demonstrate experience navigating similar complexities will be well-positioned.

💡 Interview Preparation

Design Process Questions:

  • Describe your process for identifying the need for a new design system component or pattern. Be prepared to walk through an example from your portfolio.
  • How do you ensure consistency and scalability when designing and documenting design system elements?
  • Explain your approach to collaborating with engineers during the implementation of design system components.
  • How do you gather feedback on the design system and prioritize improvements?

Company Culture Questions:

  • What aspects of Wolt's mission and design culture resonate with you? Research Wolt's values and recent product launches.
  • How do you approach collaboration with designers from different teams and disciplines?
  • How do you handle constructive criticism and feedback on your design system work?

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

  • Structure your presentation to clearly articulate the problem each design system project solved and the impact it had on the organization or product.
  • Focus on the process behind your design system contributions, including research, ideation, testing, and documentation.
  • Be prepared to discuss the technical considerations and constraints you encountered when building or maintaining design system elements.
📝 Enhancement Note: Interview questions will likely probe your experience with design system best practices, ability to collaborate effectively with technical teams, and strategic thinking around the long-term evolution of a design system in a large organization.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this design position:

  • Submit your application through this link.
  • Carefully review your portfolio, ensuring it highlights your experience in design systems, including case studies that demonstrate your process and impact.
  • Tailor your resume to emphasize relevant keywords such as "Design Systems," "Product Design," "Figma," "Component Libraries," and "Design Governance."
  • Prepare for the interview process by practicing articulating your design system experience and process, and researching Wolt's products and design culture.
  • Consider how your experience aligns with the challenges and opportunities presented in the role description, particularly regarding scaling a design system in a large, fast-growing company.
⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and design industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.